


Predictions in Matters of Love

by The_Fox_Embowed



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Ja'loja, Spoiler for s2e4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 18:51:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17751500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fox_Embowed/pseuds/The_Fox_Embowed
Summary: While re-watching s2e1: Ja'loja, I was inspired to rewrite the episode, based on the prediction I made the first time I watched it, and prompted by the bartender's line at the end of the episode, warning against such predictions and the fact that Bortus mentioned a superstition about attending the Ja'loja party unaccompanied.Basically, How the episode would have gone if Ed had been pining over Alara at the bar that night instead of Kelly.





	Predictions in Matters of Love

**Author's Note:**

> 19.672% of this piece is lifted directly from s2e1. Most of this amount is dialogue that has been slightly altered or that is part of scenes necessary to the plot or which start the same way as in the episode, but diverge some time during the scene. 
> 
> If a scene occurred in the episode but does not occur in this story, it is because for the purpose of this story, it occurred in exactly the same way as in the episode.
> 
> Also, I have no beta reader, so if there are any typos or grammar mistakes, mea culpa.

“You know what the worst days are, Olix?” Ed asked the bartender. “The days when you can’t stay busy. No Krill confrontations, no spatial anomalies, just nothing going on. And all your thoughts just march inward.”

“So, most days.”

“Hey,” sighed Alara as she approached. “Mind if I join you?”

“Alara. No, pull up a chair. I can use an extra liver.” Ed said, turning back to his glass of bourbon.

“Xelayans don’t have livers,” Alara said with a chuckle. “I’ll have a dou–”

“Double Xelayan Tequila. Here you go.” Olix finished as he started to pour her drink.

“Oh, boy. Am I that much of a lush?” Alara asked embarrassedly. Olix laughed without answering. Alara felt almost offended by his unspoken confirmation.

“If you wanna be alone, I could take off.” She said, turning her attention to the Captain.

“No, no, you’re all good.”

“It’s just, um, I see you in here a lot lately, you know? After hours.”

“Oh my God, don’t tell me the crew is talking.”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Alara said animatedly, trying to assure him that wasn’t her intent. “It’s just… Look, I know it’s none of my business, but if you ever need an ear, I’ve got two big pointy ones.”

“No, that’s nice of you, but there’s nothing I can tell you the whole crew doesn’t already know.” Ed said, staring at his glass and hoping Alara bought the lie. The truth of the matter was that he wasn’t moping about Kelly. He’d made peace with their relationship’s end months ago. He was really only keeping up appearances at this point. If everyone thought he was pining after his first officer, it was fine–she was his ex-wife, so Union regulations about workplace fraternization were basically ignored by the crew. He was still upset that she’d got him the job without telling him first, but he was slowly coming to realize that he did still deserve the command, even if he’d initially obtained it in a less than ideal manner. No, Ed was drinking himself to oblivion every night because without anything interesting going on, there was nothing to distract him from the fact that he was unhealthily attracted to his security officer. Those regulations that could be ignored when it came to Kelly couldn’t when it came to Alara. He found that the only ways to ignore his feelings were action, which the ship hadn’t seen in a long while, or alcohol. He knew that it wasn’t the smartest move to self-medicate, but what choice did he have? And now she was even there when he was drinking to forget her.

“Believe me, I get it,” she sighed, leaning back in her stool. Ed doubted that. “I’m used to people talking about my love life.”

Ed’s eyebrows went up involuntarily before he could return them to normal. The offering to lend an ear, bringing up her own troubles with dating… Was she hinting at what he thought? He felt a blossom of hope in his chest, squashing it down immediately. It didn’t matter if she was. Regulations forbade it. But Ed couldn’t stop himself from sighing.

“You know, there are times when I feel like you and I are more alike than any two people on the ship.” He said, trying to sound distant and calculating about his empathy.

“How so?”

“Well, we both know we’re good at our jobs, and yet we also seem to be the only two people who are haunted by this little voice that’s always whispering that we don’t really deserve to be here.” If she thought he was only upset about Kelly’s maneuvering him into the command, she wouldn’t connect the drinking with his own love life; or would just assume he was still pining for Kelly. “And we’re both alcoholics.”

⁂

“Come in.” Ed said in response to the chiming of his office door. Kelly entered, and Ed shut down his computer screen.

“Listen, I know we haven’t talked much lately, but I want to have a conversation with you. About us.”

“You know what, stop right there. You don’t have to say it.”

“I don’t?”

“No, you don’t. Look, I have been drowning in late-night bourbons and I haven’t been myself for a while. I should’ve communicated with you and I didn’t.”

“That’s totally understandable.”

“But-but let me finish. Let me finish. If you want to give this another shot, I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“I’m– oh.” Kelly was shocked. She was expecting to have to let him down. Him rejecting her–even though she hadn’t been about to ask him to give it another shot–hurt more than she would have expected it to, had she predicted it.

“Look, Kel, I’ve finally come to terms with our split, and the fact that we just aren’t compatible. Trying to relive that just isn’t something I want or need, and I think you know that too.”

“Ed, I’m seeing someone. You don’t have to worry about me being hung up on you. I thought you were going to try to ask me to Bortus’ Ja’loja thing. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to tell you that I wasn’t interested, not the other way around. I came here to tell you about Cassius because I didn’t want you to be blindsided at Bortus’ Ja’loja party.”

“Cassius? The teacher?”

“Yes.”

“I can see that. He’s good looking, and from what little I’ve heard about him he sounds like a nice enough guy. Good for you, Kel. I’ll see you and him at Bortus’ party.”

⁂

“My god, this ship is amazing,” said the new cartographer, her voice filled with awe.

Alara had an odd sense of distrust. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something seemed off about the cartographer. She figured she’d ask some questions and judge her reactions. “Your file said that this is your first posting on an exploratory vessel?”

“First time. Yep. Can’t wait.”

“Well, it’s a great crew,” Alara replied, the feeling of distrust having dissipated. The new crew member was probably just nervous about her first assignment. It was probably nothing. “You’re gonna like it here.”

“And this is our captain,” Alara continued as Ed approached, typing away on his tablet. “Sir, this is Lieutenant Tyler, our new dark matter cartographer.”

“Oh hey. Pleasure to have you on board.”

“Oh, please. Pleasure’s mine, sir. I’ve been posted mostly on science vessels and outposts, so I am really excited to be here.”

“An explorer at heart, huh?”

“Since I was a kid. You have no idea. Visiting uncharted planets and meeting new species–this is a dream come true. Uh, can I ask our course heading?”

“We’re on our way to watch our second officer go to the bathroom. Anyway, welcome.” Ed looked back down to his tablet as he stalked off. Alara let out an awkward chuckle but didn’t go into further detail. Lt. Tyler looked confused. They continued walking to the bridge.

“Our first officer, Commander Grayson,” Alara said as they entered the bridge.

“Lieutenant Janel Tyler, reporting for duty, sir.”

“Commander Kelly Grayson. Welcome aboard.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to familiarize myself with your navigational array.”

“It’s all yours.”

“Thanks.” Janel walked over to it and sat down, adjusting her seat. The orange-suited man already at the helm quickly spun around as if he had not been watching her with his mouth hanging open like he’d lost control of his jaw muscles.

“Hi,” he let out meekly before seemingly rallying himself and continuing with more confidence. “Gordon Malloy. Welcome to the _Orville_.” His face now held a rather stupid looking grin. If only he knew who he was so attracted to. But she needed to keep herself together. Hostility would be suspicious. She had barely kept herself from ripping the captain’s throat out when she saw him in the hall. The others weren’t a problem, but this man and the captain were. They had callously murdered hundreds of her people.

“Thank you. I was just telling your security chief how excited I am to be here.”

“That’s awesome,” He said with a chuckle, repeating quietly, “awesome. Yeah, it’s… pretty great.”

“I bet,” she replied succinctly, hoping he would stop speaking. His voice was reminding her too much of the way she’d befriended the two disguised murderers.

“Yeah. I-I-I love it here,” he stuttered, “Like, I know for a lot of people work is work, you know? But for me… coming… coming in here every day, is like… _that’s_ not work. You know? I’m al… I’m always like, ‘Really, this is my job? How did I win at life?’ But… I did. I won. Yeah. I mean, look, if I’m, if I’m not playing my guitar… _this_ is where I want to be. Right here.” Janel wondered if he really thought this act was appealing? It was pathetic. But perhaps leading him on as well could make for a small bit of vengeance. He could feel what it was like to befriend, even fall in love with an impostor. Yes. That would serve him right for what he’d done to her.

“You play the guitar?” he responded with questioning hum. “I said, you play the guitar?”

“I do. I do, yeah. I think it’s important for a man to know how to play an instrument, you know? Yeah. If these fingers could talk.” They’d tell everyone that they were the fingers of a cold-blooded murderer…

⁂

“I’m not asking for a complete security manifest. I’m just… curious what you know about her.” Gordon said, taking a bite of his meal–some sort of green block with carrots. Alara hadn’t seen the dish before.

“I don’t know anything,” she said, surprised to realize it was true. Lt. Tyler’s records were perfectly ordinary. There were records of her previous postings, and the standard records of personality and tastes, but nothing that really told Alara who she was. None of her previous commanding officers had left notes on her, her personality exam was completely average. Alara really did know nothing about the woman. “I met her yesterday, just like you.”

“Yeah, but… you have to clear all incoming personnel, so you see all the files.” Alara wasn’t sure what to tell him. Her files were useless? That didn’t seem like the right choice. Thankfully, she was saved from that dilemma by Bortus’ approach.

“May I join you?”

“Sure. Have a seat. Okay. Did she say anything that had the word ‘boyfriend’ in it?”

“No!” Alara said with a laugh. “She literally just talked about how exited she was to be on the _Orville_. That’s it.”

“What is the problem?” asked Bortus.

“Gordon has a crush on the new cartographer.”

“I don’t have a crush, for God’s sake.” Alara mouthed ‘he does’ at Bortus. “I… just want to know what her deal is, you know? And I thought maybe I would see if she wanted to go to Bortus’ Ja’loja party.”

“Well, then ask her.”

“Well how do you think I should do that? ‘hey, I’m Gordon. You like pee?’”

“Please, I am the last person you should be asking for dating advice. You know what kind of luck I’ve had on this ship.” The kind of luck where the only two guys on the ship who weren’t intimidated by her strength were a literal robot and her captain. One couldn’t experience emotion and the other was still in love with his ex-wife who happened to be the first officer. This ship was definitely one of the weirdest in the fleet. “Maybe you should ask John? This is more his department.”

⁂

Alara fled the date Bortus had set up citing a superstition about attending a Ja’loja unaccompanied. It had been far worse than even she’d expected, with Dann being weirder than anyone she’d ever dated before–which was saying something, since some of the guys her parents had tried to set her up with on Xeleya had been quite weird indeed–and unable to take constructive criticism about his awful ‘poetry’. She leaned against the wall and was almost immediately greeted by a message of ‘I miss you’ from Dann. She decided to just leave. Weird, unable to accept criticism, _and_ clingy? No thanks. She turned away from Mooska’s and began to walk back to her quarters.

⁂

Ed was about to tap the ringer on the door to Cassius’ quarters–he wanted to apologize to the man for having done a drive-by. Despite no longer caring for Kelly, knowing she was with another guy had set something off in him–when he saw a red blur walking down the hall towards him. He started to move aside when he realized it was Alara. She was in a burgundy silk dress that accentuated her body in ways her uniform couldn’t. Ed had to make a conscious effort to look up at her face as she stopped, clearly having seen him. He noticed that she had been crying. Her eyes were swollen, and her makeup had run down her cheeks.

“Captain!” she squeaked, and Ed could tell her voice was raw from sobbing.

“Uh… Hello, Lieutenant,” he said, trying to sound professional but comforting. “What’s wrong?” When she didn’t respond, giving him a look like she wasn’t sure she should tell him, he put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, Alara. I know it’s none of my business, but if you ever need an ear, I’ve got two small, round ones. What’s got the great Alara Kitan in tears?” His callback to her earlier offer earned him a small smile from the young woman.

“I just… everyone who finds me attractive is either intimidated by my strength or so weird I can’t stand to be around them. Or a robot.” Ed was confused by the last part, but he stepped closer to Alara, pulling her into a hug.

“Hey, Alara… It’s okay. And that’s not true. I’m… I’m sure there’s someone who isn’t intimidated by you or too weird. Well, I mean, maybe a little weird, but nobody’s perfect, right?” She looked up at him and he saw what might be hope in her eyes. God they were beautiful eyes. Somehow, even with swollen eyes and running makeup she was beautiful. He realized that her face was only an inch or two away from his, and he had already let his gaze drop to her lips. He quickly moved his eyes back to hers and felt her leaning upward when the door opened, and he sprang away from her.

“Hello, Captain,” said Cassius with a tone of surprise, “Lieutenant Kitan.” Alara let out a squeak like a scared mouse. Ed found it endearing that she could take on any security threat without an ounce of fear, but this situation made her squeak in terror.

“Cassius, I was just about to ring your door console when Lt. Kitan showed up. I, uh, I wanted to talk to you about last night… about Kelly.” Ed turned to tell Alara he’d come talk to her in a minute, but she was nowhere to be found.

“She ran off when you started talking. What was it you needed to say?”

“I came to apologize…” He said as he looked down the corridor, to where Alara had gone.

“Apologize? For what?” asked Cassius as he gestured for Ed to come into his quarters. Ed was grateful that the man didn’t seem interested in what he’d seen with Alara.

⁂

Alara sat on her bed, sobbing even more than she had been before. For a moment, while Ed had been comforting her, she had thought he was talking about himself, and she’d even thought he had been about to kiss her. Then Cassius came out and she realized that he was there to talk to the teacher because he was still in love with his ex-wife. Of course she had misread the signs. He wasn’t interested in her, he just wanted to comfort her. He probably saw her as a child because of her age, and her crying in front of him probably didn’t help. Which was another problem with her attraction to him. Not only was he her captain, she was less than half his age. He probably saw her as a surrogate daughter. It would explain the looks of pride he gave her whenever she used her strength or had a good idea just as well as her foolish notion that he found her appealing. The disturbing thing was that she understood it. She even saw in him the characteristics she wished her own father had, and it only served to make him more attractive to her. God, she was messed up. No wonder everyone she dated was so weird. _She_ was weird. She curled up in a ball on her bed, not bothering to undress, and tried to cry herself to sleep.

⁂

Ed stood in front of a door, poised to tap the call button on the console (déjà vu). He stood there for several minutes, trying to gather his thoughts–and courage–and decide what to say to Alara. How could he explain what had happened? If he was honest about it, he risked a complaint to Union central over workplace sexual harassment, not to mention the noteworthy risk of being slapped or punched by a Xelayan. But he didn’t want to lie about it, especially not to Alara. What if he said it was nothing and she really had been hoping for it? What if she knew he was lying and thought he was intimidated by her or ashamed of being attracted to her? What if–no. If he kept thinking of these what if scenarios, he’d be here all night. He pressed the call button.

Alara woke to the trilling of the door’s call function. She stretched out of the fetal position she’d been lying in and rolled out of her bed. She walked over to the door and pressed the button to open it. She could tell from how sore her throat was that her voice would be too shot for the computer to understand her. As the doors opened, she saw Ed. She realized he had come by to tell her that he wasn’t interested in her, that he still loved Kelly, that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. She resigned herself to it and braced herself for rejection. He didn’t say anything. She looked up at him, and when her eyes came into contact with his, she saw that he was bracing himself for something too. But as their gazes met, the steely look she recognized as the one he had before giving a particularly tough order faded, replaced with a hunger she had never seen in his eyes before. He stepped forward a second later, his lips crashing into hers. She gasped, eyes widening in surprise before closing in bliss. She felt like she had lost control of her body as she backed up, falling backward onto the couch, tangled in the captain’s arms, reciprocating the passionate kiss. It felt nothing like the ones she’d shared with Josh, or with any of the guys her parents had tried to set her up with. He didn’t seem scared of her, as Josh had. He wasn’t awkward and fumbling like Balbis. He wasn’t too forceful, like Avilis had been or excessively gentle like Landis. It was perfect. After what felt like an eternity, he pulled back, and she heard a disappointed noise come from her throat. She hadn’t meant to make such a noise, and it was embarrassing. She blushed. Ed chuckled at her embarrassment.

“We really shouldn’t be doing this… I’m your captain. But… I- I haven’t been able to function. I’ve been trying to figure out how to keep my brain busy just so I can stop thinking about you. You know, I-I played backgammon with Isaac last week, Alara. Backgammon. That is a low point for a man.” Alara laughed. “But then you practically ran into me, and I just couldn’t… And then I came here to tell you that I couldn’t be interested in you, that as your captain it would be wrong… and you looked at me with those eyes and I just couldn’t stop myself. I’m sorry. I’ll just go, and you can report me if you want, I understand. I–”

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” Alara asked, cutting him off.

“Granted.” Ed said, almost as if it were a question.

“Shut up, Captain.” Alara said, pulling him into another kiss. It lasted even longer than the last, only ending when Ed needed to breath. It was followed by a series of frantic, quick successors interspersed with movement as the pair undressed each other, nearly tearing each other’s undershirts. At one point, they rolled off the couch, Ed hitting his head on her table. He gasped and muttered an expletive, which Alara decided to take as an order. She literally carried him to the bedroom, both laughing between kisses at the inversion of the old earth trope.

⁂

A few hours later, Ed slowly began to wake up. He didn’t want to; his dream had been pure bliss–he’d gone to Alara’s quarters and ended up spending the night with her. Honestly, he was surprised a dream could feel so real. But he knew he had to wake up, even if it did mean losing the feeling of Alara’s arms wrapped around him, and the warmth of her chest pressed against his back. Then he realized that despite having already been awake for a moment, he still felt that warmth. He looked down to the arm wrapped around him, and as sure as he lived, it was the arm of his security officer. It hadn’t been a dream after all. He felt as if his grin might split his face in two. Then panic set in. He looked over to the clock on Alara’s bedside table. 8:29 am. His shift started in thirty-one minutes, and people would be milling about in the hallway–Alara’s quarters were right next to the stairs to the bridge–that he’d need to leave through. Just as he was about to turn to wake Alara, her alarm sounded. She groaned and tried to reach over to it, but Ed was in the way. Her eyes shot open, as if she’d forgotten he was there and was assessing a threat. Ed turned over so he could face her completely. They stared at each other for a moment, neither quite sure what to say. Wordlessly, they got up, taking separate showers and getting dressed while they each collected their thoughts. Once they both were done, the clock read 8:55, and there was no time to discuss what had happened. The only thing they had time to cover was that no one could find out, at least not yet–regulations required a rather significant amount of paperwork and consent assurance tests, in addition to psychological screening and other red tape, to ensure that such a relationship wouldn’t affect the ship’s operations, and the pair didn’t want to deal with that at the moment, since they hadn’t even talked to _each other_ about it yet. So, Ed went to the door, and as he opened it, he spoke as if he was ending a professional discussion.

“Thank you for taking the time to go over those reports before shift, Lieutenant.”

“Of course, Captain.”

Ed tried to hide that he was inwardly cringing at how stilted and fake the exchange sounded. He was focusing so much on looking professional that he didn’t see Kelly before he backed into her, causing her to drop the tablet she was reading.

“Shit, sorry Kel. Didn’t see you there.” Kelly looked between him and Alara, a skeptical squint in her eyes, before picking up the tablet and walking to the bridge without a word. Evidently, she was still angry with him about the drive by.

⁂

“Okay, there she is,” John said, gesturing to the cartographer seated alone in the mess hall. “She’s all alone, so this is your chance. You can do this, all right?”

“Yeah,” Gordon said as he flexed his shoulders, trying to get used to the jacket he was wearing. He had asked John to let him run the simulation a few dozen times, slowly increasing the difficulty level until he was consistently successful on level eight. He’d even had to replace his synthesized jacket twice, as he’d grown comfortable with the number of zippers. “Okay. Here goes.” He walked over to the cartographer, waiting until she looked up at him to speak.

“Mind if I sit here?” she shook her head and started to look back to her tablet.

“Hey, uh… I… look, I’m pretty nervous here, and I don’t really know what to say, but do you want to be my date to Bortus’ Ja’loja party?” Janel looked up at him, seemingly searching his expression for something, before she smiled.

“Sure.”

“Whoa, really?”

“Yeah. Why not? You seem cool, and you’re not bad looking, so sure. Bortus is the Moclan second officer, right?” Gordon just nodded, a smile now on his face.

“Okay. See you then,” he said, then got up and walked at what he assumed was a normal pace to John, who still stood in the door. He walked with John until he was out of sight of the mess hall, then jumped in the air. “Yes! I did it! Thanks for the help, man. I owe you one.”

John was honestly surprised. He’d expected Janel to let Gordon down gently, if not laugh in the man’s face. It seemed letting Gordon rerun the simulation had helped after all. He was glad he’d relented instead of insisting Gordon was ready after a single run.

The intercom turned on before John could respond. “All hands, this is the captain. We are entering orbit of Moclus.”

⁂

Olix stood behind the bar as always, pouring a drink for an Ensign as he watched the room. On the far side, near the piano, he saw the captain and Lt. Kitan talking and laughing. The two had attended Bortus’ Ja’loja together, claiming it was only because of the second officer’s superstition, but Olix knew better. He chuckled to himself. He had learned never to make predictions in matters of love, because he was usually dead wrong. That didn’t stop him from doing so inwardly, and he was glad that for once, he’d been right. His elation quickly spread to the patrons of his bar, as he poured a bit more than he normally would.


End file.
